Shortly after that, the Union confirmed that Daniel’s contract had been terminated by mutual consent.

Philadelphia Union

In the latest Inside Doop, Dave Zeitlin wonders — with Aaron Wheeler starting over a healthy Austin Berry in Chicago, and Wheeler’s stoppage time foul likely to have cost the Union the game where it not for Zac MacMath’s massive penalty kick saves — if John Hackworth has been overly cautious in getting injured players back into the starting lineup.

Local

On Sunday, West Chester United fell 3-1 to Maryland Bays in the USASA Region I Open Cup quarterfinals after going on top 1-0 eight minutes after the the opening kickoff courtesy of a 25-yard curling effort from winger Justin McCall.

Hershey, Pa.’s Christian Pulisic (PA Classics) scored a hat trick in the US U-17 MNT ‘s 4-1 victory over their Bosnia and Herzegovina counterparts in Sarajevo on Sunday to claim the 2014 Josip Katalinski International Tournament title. The tournament championship is the team’s third in four months after winning the Nike International Friendlies in Florida last December and the Aegean Cup title in Turkey last January. More on the win from Soccer America and SBI.

MLS

Toronto currently sits atop the allocation order for returning players to MLS. Asked if the club would be interested in Brek Shea should he opt to return to the league, Toronto FC general manager Tim Bezbatchenko said, “Yeah, 100 percent. I mean, Brek Shea is a dynamic U.S. international. I think you’d take any of these guys seriously.”

US

US Soccer president Sunil Gulati spoke to reporters on Monday about the reason behind the shock firing of USWNT head coach Tom Sermanni.

It’s probably three or four things. One of those is the evaluation of where the team is going. Two is, talking with people in and around the team. And whenever we have changes or possible changes or directional changes, we talk to players, we talk to staff, we talk to people who have observed the team and we rely on our own assessment. Third, the results at the Algarve Cup weren’t what we hoped for. The standards for this team are very high. That doesn’t mean one loss or even two losses would necessitate or push us toward a change

Gulati said a player revolt was not behind the firing. “This isn’t a group of players coming to seek us out and saying there’s something wrong…This wasn’t a collective group of players coming to us and saying we have to make a change. Absolutely not.”

Gulati seemed to imply that one issue was Sermanni’s laid-back coaching style as compared to that of his predecessor, Pia Sunhage. “Tom does have a unique style and Pia’s is very different. The demand from all of us in the Women’s program and the women’s team fits well with certain styles and not so well with other styles…It’s important the collective buy into the direction and how you are moving forward and we had some concerns there.”

Gulati said that the process of hiring a new coach is ongoing. “Over the next days and perhaps weeks, we will decide on who is going to take the national team on a long-term basis, on a permanent basis.”

He said further, “If we have a chance between two equal candidates, my preference is to go with a a female. The same is true with an American coach….So is it (male or female) a consideration? The answer is yes.”

In case you’re wondering, CONCACAF’s qualification tournament for the 2015 Women’s World Cup will take place, as it did in 2010, Oct 16-26 in Cancun and Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

Meanwhile, in Australia, the women’s national team players have revolted against Hesterine de Reus, who replaced Sermanni when he came to the US team. Football Federation Australia head David Gallop says Sermanni’s firing is coincidental and has no bearing on de Reus’ future with the Austrialian team.

Elsewhere

The AP reports, “Infrastructure experts say that Brazil has run out of time to meet its promise to fully expand and renovate airports that will serve hundreds of thousands of fans pouring into the country for the World Cup that starts in just two months.”

Paul Irvine, who runs a travel agency in Rio de Janeiro, tells Reuters, “People coming to Brazil are going to be shocked, especially Americans, by the how bad the airports are. There won’t be any catastrophic issues…but they will be chaotic and ugly as heck.”

Pennarellodesign.com has a gallery of photos of legendary footballers that have been transformed to resemble old album covers as part of its LPFC project. Very, very cool.

Is that a MLS rule? A team in other leagues can terminate a contract at any time guaranteed money or not. I take the mutual consent statement to just mean there is no animosity surrounding it just that both know its time to move on.